Creativity Quote by Rickie Lee Jones

Spoken like a musician who’s seen enough stages to know fear is less a monster than a scheduling problem. “There is no fear before and no fear after” doesn’t deny anxiety; it cages it inside the only moment that matters: the performance itself. Jones frames fear as dead time, a haze that gathers in anticipation and then returns as self-critique once the last note lands. In the middle, where the body is doing its job and the song has momentum, the fear can’t get traction.

The grammar is blunt, almost ritualistic, like a mantra you repeat to keep your hands steady. It’s also a quiet flex: if you can claim fear has no jurisdiction on either side of the act, you’re declaring authority over the narrative of your own vulnerability. That’s the subtext - not “I’m fearless,” but “I refuse to let fear be the headline.”

Then the pivot: “We give our best.” The “we” matters. Jones shifts from solitary nerves to a collective ethic, as if to remind you that performance is an exchange, not a test. It’s also a subtle rebuttal to perfectionism. The best is not the flawless; it’s the honest, present, fully spent. In an era that treats artists like content machines and audiences like judges, the line insists on something older and tougher: show up, commit, don’t rehearse your regret.